Time just flies by, doesn’t it?, chapter 9
"Armstrong, come here; you too Moron," he said. I hope that wasn't Butch's real name. They both glared at each other, but walked over to the teacher.
"Yeah, Moron, go," a student said.
"Carl, you'll be next if you keep it up. Come out here, you two; you're in trouble, yes." He took them both out into the hall; all we heard was a slam and a yell.
"Butch!" the computers teacher ran out into the hall and gasped.
"That's what the jerk gets for standing up to me!" he yelled. Everyone guessed and knew the same thing: he hit Billie.
Soon the whole class was out in the hall watching what was going on. Butch was down on one knee staring Billie in the eyes. "Next time, I'll kill you." he threatened. Billie just looked at him, continuing to glare. I don't think he is scared, he was just mad, pissed, wanted to kill. I could understand, but for me? I had been the jerk to him when he wanted to be nice to me, so why had he stood up for me? I looked at him: he had blood flowing from his nose, and it was going down his chin and onto his all black clothes that were slowly turning red. I wanted to hug him, I felt so bad, and this was my entire fault! Bitch stood up and looked at everyone that was in the halls.
"Anyone else wanna try and stand up to me?" he growled. No one answered; they just looked at him and smiled. When he turned back to Billie, he had his hand on his nose. Butch grabbed his arm and yanked him up, punching his shoulder. Billie couldn't say anything; he was in too much pain. Butch grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him up to him. Billie just stared into his eyes, breathing very hard. I could tell that he was having an extremely hard time breathing, and this was making it worse.
"Butch, put him down!" the wrestling coach yelled.
"Put him down? Okay," he said, dropping Billie hard onto the floor.
"S-stop!" he tried to say, but was failing. When he landed he let out a hard sigh, holding his arm that Butch had punched.
"Not so arm-strong now, are you?" Butch asked. This was horrible! He makes fun of him and hurts him at the same time!
"Butch, leave him alone!" the coach said, pulling him back, finally.
"Oh my gawd!" Everyone turned to see the principal running over. When she got to us, she ran to Billie's side, looking him in the face. "By gawd, what is going on?" she asked, looking at the two teachers.
"He decided to pick a fight with Butch, and unfortunately, he was hurt, badly."
"And no one tried to stop him from killing the boy?" she asked. "This is not the only fight we've had here, but it is the worst. I am very disappointed, especially in you two. Teachers are here to teach, but to help, too."
"Will Billie be getting into trouble?" a girl next to me asked.
"I can't really give someone detention whose looking like this. He can't possibly."
"If yer gonna give me detention, he could at least be suspended," Butch said.
"I'm fine. I'll take detention. I started it," Billie said. Everyone looked at him; the principal looked to the ground.
"You must be hurt, not many students say that."
"It's better than going home." He didn't look up.
"Fine, but we will have to call your parents. Both of yours." She looked at both boys. Billie looked up at her quickly, he looked scared. Something must go on at home, I can tell.
"You both have two weeks of after school detention. You are to be there as soon as the bell rings, after you get your belongings. I don't want any more arguments, and Billie, don't let this happen again, this is the second time since you came here, Butch, I lost count after your twentieth time." Everyone laughed; Butch got red again.
"I shouldn't have to go, I didn't do anything." Billie looked at him, still holding his arm.
"Nothing. I'll take note on that," he said. The coach looked at him, then to Butch.
"Would you like me to call their parents now?"
"Take Butch, Billie needs to go and get cleaned up." She looked at the class. "It's over, go back into your class." Everyone did as they were told. She took Billie down the hall, the coach and Butch short behind.
"You know, I can't believe you would stand up to him like that," Marshall said when I sat down.
"It was my chair, and I don't move for jerks," was all I said in reply. Marshall looked at me and smiled.
"You got real guts girl, real guts. Y'know, the last time Billie Joe stood up for a girl was when it was his girlfriend. Never since, never."
I looked at him, he was still looking at me.
"I don't have anymore guts than the next person; I'm just the only one that will show that I've got them. But, why? Why did he stand up for me? I was a jerk..." I couldn't look at him anymore; he looked mad when I said I was a jerk.
"How? How were you a jerk?"
"I just wouldn't be nice. No matter what he did. He started out as a jerk, and I continued."
"Well, with him, you have to be a jerk until he knows who's boss. If you don't, he'll be a total idiot to you, forever, unless you stand up to him. That was how him and Lilly got together. The first person to ever stand up to him."
"And why did no one else do that before her? They couldn't have been scared."
"Heh, you saw him beat Butch up today, no one else, no one, would have dared do that. They were afraid of him, though he would have never done anything to them anyway, he just was a jerk, that made them think that he would end up doing things to them, so, they never stood up to him. That simple."
"Yeah, good point. Uh, your name is Marshall, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"I have a question. And it is serious. I want you to answer it without getting upset with me, please."
"I can do that. I don't get mad easily, unless your name is Jimmy, then I will."
"Heh, it's not." I took a deep breath and looked at him. "Why were you and Jimmy staring at me in reading and social studies? It made me uncomfortable."
"Oh." He looked to me first and then to his hands. "I can't really tell you why, except that a friend of ours told us about you; we were trying to, well, we wanted to see if you were the same person that he was talking about. And, I am sorry I made you feel that way."
"It's okay, but why can't you tell me why? Like, why can't you tell me who the person was, or what they told you about me?"
"Because they are embarrassed about it. Not about the problem, but they don't want anyone to know."
"Someone likes me, don't they?" I asked. He smiled.
"Yes, but I can't tell you who."
"Why not? I won't tell anyone, or be mad."
"Why do you want to know? Is there any real reason?"
"Not a good reason, but I just want to know. I don't know why, besides the fact that you already told me part of it, so I just want to know the rest."
"What will you give me in return if I tell you?"
"I dunno, what do you want?"
He looked at my lips and smiled. "I don't know."
I smiled, but didn't look at him. When I did look at him, he was still smiling. "I think you do." He looked down. "So, you will tell me if I kiss you?"
"Not until tomorrow."
I raised an eyebrow, confused.
"Tomorrow? Why?"
"Because I want to have more than just a kiss." He got a bit serious now, I could tell he wanted a lot more than just a peck on the lips, a lot more. He wasn't looking at me while I thought this.
"Erm, how long would that be?"
"I dunno, when would you start feeling too uncomfortable?"
"I really don't know." Now that I had got to know a 'little' more about him, I wouldn't have such an unsettled feeling as I would've before. It may be awhile, it may be a quick kiss. "It depends on how fast you expect me to go; if you take it slowly, then possibly for as long as you would like." He smiled at this.
"Then I guess I'll have to take it slowly, for a while."
I looked at him as the teacher came back in.
"That was a bit weird, but we'll just have to continue with the last, ow...we only have twelve minutes left, so just talk," he said. Everyone moved to a spot where their friends were and the class filled with chattering.
"When do you want it?" I asked Marshall.
"Whenever you're ready," he said.
"After school?"
"That'd be fine. But where?"
"Well, I don't want to go home where I would be caught, so what about your house?"
"My house? I guess that'd be fine."
We talked about nothing for the last ten minutes, getting up and gathering our belongings from our lockers, heading to his house. He had an older house, but it was nice: two story. When we walked though the door, we were greeted by a lady in her late thirties, early forties.
"Hey, Mom."
She smiled, looking at me.
"Hey Marshall, who's she?" she asked, still smiling.
"She is a friend from school. Emily, Mom, Mom, Emily."
"Hello, Emily. How are you?" she asked, holding out her hand. I shook it, looking at Marshall.
"Um, I'm fine."
"We're gonna go up to my room."
"Okay, if you need anything dear, just tell me."
I smiled and followed him up the stairs to his room. He opened the door and closed it behind us. His room was clean and large; a lot bigger than mine. He looked at me and smiled again. I knew what he wanted. I walked up to him and pushed my lips against his. He seemed surprised that I had been the one to start it, so was I, but this was my first time actually kissing someone, and I just wanted to get it over with, so I thought. When I kissed him he pulled me in closer, a lot closer than I had wanted, but I just let him do what he wanted, feeling that nothing more would happen. We stayed like this for about ten minutes before making-out. When I had had enough, I pulled away. He smiled at me.
"So, you can't tell me until tomorrow?" I asked with puppy dog eyes.
"Not until tomorrow," he said.
I play glared at him, pretending to pout. "After that, and I still have to wait," I said, crossing my arms. All he did was smile, laughing a little.
"I wasn't supposed to tell you at all, so you should be happy that I'm telling you."
He was right, but I didn't care. He was a good kisser. Um, where did that come from? I looked up and to his walls. There were no posters, surprisingly, but instead, there were pictures of ladies. It looked a little like they were naked, like that was the reason they were there.
"Um, what are all of these?"
"Women," he simply said.
"No, really? I thought they were guys. What I mean is, why are they here? Do you like naked women that much or something? Or, is it just something to look at every once and a while?"
He looked at them as well. "Both really." I looked at him and frowned. "What? Is that a problem?"
"No, it's just that I wouldn't exactly expect all of that from you," I said looking at him. "You look more like a punk, not someone that looks at naked girls. It seems more like you'd have pictures of rock stars and people smoking, like my cousin."
"A lot of people say that. My mom did before, she used to say that she didn't want those posters in my room, she hasn't been up here for about a year because she thinks that is what I have up here. She would be so pissed if she saw this stuff. But I don't care."
"Oh, I see. Is Jimmy like that?"
"Like what? Pics of women all over his walls? No, not at all. He is bi, and tries to hide it, so he has no pictures at all, except locked away on his computer."
"Oh my gosh, are you serious? I would of never expected that," I said with my hand over my mouth.
"Yeah. You should see him with Billie. He won't say whether he is straight or not, and I believe he is, but Jimmy seems to be all over him at times, not realizing it."
"What do you mean 'all over him'?" I looked at him confused.
"He just stares at him, and you can tell what's going on in his head."
"Like what he's thinking?"
"He doesn't think, he doesn't know how. Why do you think he keeps quiet a lot of the time? Because if he didn't, he would come out with something that had nothing to do with the conversation." He looked at me.
"Really? That's so sad."
"No, not really. He is actually really smart, when he wants to be, which is not around school. No one here acts smart; if we had one person here besides a nerd that did, well, it'd be a miracle."
"I am smart."
"You kissed me."
I laughed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He looked over and smiled.
"You would've had to loose your mind to kiss me. Jimmy won't even do that!"
"Why, what's wrong with you?"
"I dunno, nothing, they just say that no one would wanna kiss me."
"Heh, that's weird."
"Would you have kissed me if it hadn't been for the fact that I wouldn't tell you about that unless you did."
"I don't know. I can't rewind the past and try to do that, so I really can't tell you."
He looked at me. "See, that's just it. You probably wouldn't have, you just wanted to know. Now, if Jimmy would kiss Billie, if he'd let him, and he won't kiss me, then it is a proven fact that no one else would either."
I laughed while he said this. I looked over to the alarm clock and noticed that it was around four.
"I should be going. Mum's probably wondering where I am."
"Okay, bye." He opened the door and followed me downstairs.
"Bye, Emily. I hope you can come by again sometime. Have a good day," his mother said.
"You too." I opened the door and walked outside. I wanted to be alone for the walk home, so I made sure that Marshall wasn't behind me. He wasn't, must be he didn't really want to be with me, which wasn't a bad thing at all; it actually made me feel a little better.
I didn't realize how far away from my house I was until I read the street signs. I was beginning to get a little freaked out, but I stayed cool, I didn't want anyone from school to see me freak out; I'd be made fun of until I died. I looked up to one of the signs; it pointed to a road that was twenty minutes from my house. My mom would be mad when I walked through the door that late. And...I've never been down this street alone, so what about the rapers that may be all around me? I was beginning to wish that Marshal were here to walk me home now. I was about to reach for my backpack, but stopped when I remembered that I had decided to leave it at school. Great, now I can't even call my mom to have her pick me up! Why the heck was I so stupid?!
I continued walking. After eight minutes I came up to a long street that turned off onto another. I walked down this street, but stopped dead when I heard yelling.
"You little-" I heard a man yell. He had been cut off by a woman.
"No! Don't hit him!! Stop!" She sounded like she was probably crying at this point.
"I told you to behave! And then you go to your freaking school and get in a fight! Go to the garage, I'll be there in a minute. NOW!" I heard a door slam and then another yell.
"Don't slam the door!" the person opened the door and slammed it again.
"I told you not to slam the door!" The next thing I heard hurt me so much, even though I didn't know who the people were.
"No! Put the knife down!" the woman screamed. "He's just upset!"
"Get off me! None of my kids tell me what to do!"
"They are not your kids! They are Andy's!"
"Andy is dead, and he's in the past!"
"And he doesn't want to know that! To him he is still alive! He only acts this way because you won't give him a chance!" she cried again. "Please!"
"I said, get off of me!" I heard something that sounded like a slap and the lady was silent.
"Get away!" a boy's voice called after the door opened and shut. "Get away from me!" The boy sounded familiar. Who was it? I heard the door open again and slam shut. There was a sound like someone was rushing.
"Unlock this door!"
"Why the heck would I do that?!"
"If you don't get this door unlocked by the count of three, I will hurt you so bad!"
"What are you going to do? Kill me?! I'll be better off dead!"
The next noise was horrible. It sounded of busting wood. The front door flew open, and the boy came out. He ran towards me, apparently not realizing it. I looked at him a bit closer. Oh my gosh, it was Billie Joe! He had blood all over. He looked at me, but not noticing who I was. I watched as the man came out through the door.
"Billie!"
He looked over to me, squinting to see who I was. The sun was in his eyes so he was having a hard time.
"Who are you?" he yelled, out of breath.
"It's me, Emily."
He stopped dead, looking at me.
"What? What are you doing here?"
"I went to Marshal's house."
"What?"
"Billie! You have to get out of here! I'll explain later!"
He didn't seem like he wanted to go with me, but knew he had no other choice. I looked at him, and turned to run. He followed me. When I looked behind me, I noticed he was looking back. The man was running after us, quite fast.
"Can you run any faster?" I asked, as the man was catching up.
"You ever been beat and had to run for your life? Didn't think so!" he said, panting. I turned on the corner and went straight. We both ran for our lives, going and going. After twelve minutes, we turned onto a street that I had never in life been to. Billie looked to the signs.
"What?" he asked when noticing the confused look on my face.
"Is...there any....place...to rest?" I asked, panting and out of breath still, but even more.
"Your turn to follow me." He stopped and looked around. I wondered why the heck he was just standing there. "Come on. Can you cli...climb?" he asked. He didn't seem to be doing as bad as me.
"Yes, but I don't know how well I'll be right now."
"Oh well, we have to try!" He went to the right and ran to a large tree. It reached up really far, and was equally as wide.
"We...we have to climb...this?"
He shook his head. "Yes. He can't climb, and up there you could explain why you were there, at Marshal's house."
"Okay. But, can you help me up at all?"
"Yes, you won't need to climb up this part though. Around the other side is a rope ladder. I'll pull it up after we get there." He went around to the other side, me following close behind. When on the other side, he jumped up and pulled a ladder down. It was about five feet above ground; I was only about five two, not good. Before he'd pulled it down, it was almost a foot above my head.
"Um, Billie. My height and that don't make a good combo."
"Yes, I noticed." He held tight to the ladder and put all of his weight on it, bringing it down about five inches. "Any better?"
"Yes, I hope." I grabbed tight one the ladder, trying to hoist myself up. I felt his arm go around one of my legs. "Now put your feet on my shoulders; pull yourself up." I did as he said and soon found myself up on the ladder. I climbed as fast as I could so that he could get on. My weight brought it down an extra four inches, so he was in good luck there. But then I realized he'd said something about being beaten, that would slow him down, and bring his strength down a little. But I was proven wrong. I felt the rope go down a little more, and weight being added to it. Soon I was near the top of the ladder. When I reached the top, I noticed a large deck, the leaves were hiding this part out of view. After I got fully over the edge, I moved aside to let Billie up. He got up and began pulling the ladder up.
"Billie, who made this?"
"My dad."
"That guy made this?"
"NO!" he yelled.
"Sorry!"
"No, he didn't," he said, his head hanging. "My dad died when I was ten."
"Then, who is that?"
"My step-dad. My drunk step-dad."
"Why is this place hidden out of view? And how did the trees get carved back like this?" I said, noticing that he didn't want to talk about the dad subject anymore. When I looked up, the trees were in a dome shape; it looked awesome.
"My dad carved it like this so that we could come up here with privacy, not to have to worry about everyone watching us. Here, come," he said after the last bit of ladder was over the edge. He walked me over to the middle of the tree. The deck went all around the tree. When we got to the other side, I noticed another rope ladder.
"Wow," I said, looking up. There was more added to the top. Though this was a bit different. It was like a whole house up there, about a hundred feet above us.
"Did he build this too?"
"No, that has been there forever. Never dared to go in it though, supposed to have weird things happening up there."
"How did the ladder get there?"
"Been there forever too, that's another reason I've never been up there, too afraid the ladder will break."
"Haven't the other people ever tried to get up it?"
"What other people? You're the only other person that knows about it."
"Why'd you bring me?"
"Because this is the only safe place here. And it helps me to calm down knowing that my dad's the one to make it."
"Have you ever wanted to get up there?"
"Heh, oh yes."
"Then...why don't you?"
"I just told you."
"Well, I could try to get up there, see how it is."
"And if you fall?"
"Catch me, that's all I can say."
"What are you gonna do if you get up there?"
"Give me a rope, and I can tie it up there, so you can get up. Because truthfully, I don't plan on exploring it alone."
"Whatever, you can try."
I smiled at him and held out my hand.
"What?"
"Rope?"
"Oh." He walked back around the tree and went to a corner of the deck. He came back with another rope ladder.
"Here ya go." He handed it to me. "Be careful," he said. I couldn't believe he was telling me to be careful.
I started climbing up the tree slowly so that I didn't fall. After what seemed like hours, I was at the top of the ladder, pulling myself up on a really small doorstep. I unhooked the old ladder and replaced it with the new one. I let the bottom swing down to Billie.
"Hurry! I don't wanna be up here alone!"
"Huh?" he yelled.
"Hurry!"
"What?" He couldn't hear me, and I didn't know why. I hear him perfectly well. I heard a low humming, it sounded like a bee of some sort, but it was getting louder. My heart began to race as I thought about what it could be, but laughed as I knew all it could have been was a small bee, that was pretty much harmless. I looked down at him as he started to climb.
"Billie, hurry!" I yelled again. He didn't respond, but kept climbing. When he was almost to the middle I called down to him.
"What d'you think is up here?" I asked. He reached the middle. "I mean in the house."
"What about the house?" he called up.
"Huh?"
"All I heard was 'I mean in the house', what about it?"
"All you heard was that?"
"Yeah, why?"
"That is strange."
"Why?"
"Because, while you were below the middle of the tree you couldn't hear anything, but once you reached the middle, you could."
"Yeah, that is weird." he said as he reached where I was. "But...what were you saying?"
"What do you think is in the house?"
"Don't know, won't know, until we're inside it." He turned around and looked at what I thought had been a door.
"Wasn't there just...wasn't a door just there?"
"Yeah, I...think so," he said as the humming sound started again. "I told you this place was said to have weird things happening."
I smiled, or tried to, when he said this.
"What...what is that sound?"
"I dunno, did it just start?"
"No, it did it when you were down there, when I first got up here."
"Sounds like a killer bee."
"No, really? I thought it was a bird."
"You sound like Marshal. Oh, we were supposed to talk about that. Why were you there?"
"Um..."
"'Um'? What about 'um'?" I looked at him.
"Uh...well. He said something about someone liking me, and the only way he'd tell me was if I kissed him."
"Heh, he ain't gonna tell you just because you kissed him."
"What?!"
"You actually believed him?"
"Yes."
"He did the same thing to Jimmy, our friend. Told him he'd do something, wouldn't even tell me, and Jimmy asked what he had to do, and Marshal said to kiss one of the friends."
"And...why did he want him to do that?"
"Because he wouldn't tell Jimmy anyways, if at all, unless he kissed him."
"Why?"
"Because he is bisexual. Why else?"
"He is?"
"Yes."
"He said that Jimmy was."
"Oh fuck no!" he laughed.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes! Jimmy hated the idea of kissing another guy, let alone making out with him! He was so mad when he found out that he wasn't gonna tell him anything!"
I just looked at him and sighed.
"So otherwise he was serious when he said I was stupid, or whatever, for kissing him?"
"Hate to break it to ya, but, yes."
"That is...that is weird."
He nodded. "He is weird."
I looked at him. "Why did he say that Jimmy was bisexual?"
"Because he doesn't want others to know that he likes guys, I guess. He thought that he could make Jimmy look bad, but instead this happened."
"But...he said that Jimmy liked you?"
"Uh, he said that?"
"Yeah. Would that mean that he liked you, and not Jimmy?"
"I dunno, and...I really don't feel like finding out. Others can like me, but I really don't want Marshal to." I laughed. As I began to talk, I heard the noise of the bee again. I looked over to him; he was looking around. He didn't act like he was scared, just wondering what it was.
"Where is it coming from?" I asked
"Don't know, besides from up here." He stood up and went to the edge of the small porch we were on. Down below, the tree house ground was a blur. It hadn't been that way before. He looked around; to me his gaze met last.
"Yeah, Moron, go," a student said.
"Carl, you'll be next if you keep it up. Come out here, you two; you're in trouble, yes." He took them both out into the hall; all we heard was a slam and a yell.
"Butch!" the computers teacher ran out into the hall and gasped.
"That's what the jerk gets for standing up to me!" he yelled. Everyone guessed and knew the same thing: he hit Billie.
Soon the whole class was out in the hall watching what was going on. Butch was down on one knee staring Billie in the eyes. "Next time, I'll kill you." he threatened. Billie just looked at him, continuing to glare. I don't think he is scared, he was just mad, pissed, wanted to kill. I could understand, but for me? I had been the jerk to him when he wanted to be nice to me, so why had he stood up for me? I looked at him: he had blood flowing from his nose, and it was going down his chin and onto his all black clothes that were slowly turning red. I wanted to hug him, I felt so bad, and this was my entire fault! Bitch stood up and looked at everyone that was in the halls.
"Anyone else wanna try and stand up to me?" he growled. No one answered; they just looked at him and smiled. When he turned back to Billie, he had his hand on his nose. Butch grabbed his arm and yanked him up, punching his shoulder. Billie couldn't say anything; he was in too much pain. Butch grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him up to him. Billie just stared into his eyes, breathing very hard. I could tell that he was having an extremely hard time breathing, and this was making it worse.
"Butch, put him down!" the wrestling coach yelled.
"Put him down? Okay," he said, dropping Billie hard onto the floor.
"S-stop!" he tried to say, but was failing. When he landed he let out a hard sigh, holding his arm that Butch had punched.
"Not so arm-strong now, are you?" Butch asked. This was horrible! He makes fun of him and hurts him at the same time!
"Butch, leave him alone!" the coach said, pulling him back, finally.
"Oh my gawd!" Everyone turned to see the principal running over. When she got to us, she ran to Billie's side, looking him in the face. "By gawd, what is going on?" she asked, looking at the two teachers.
"He decided to pick a fight with Butch, and unfortunately, he was hurt, badly."
"And no one tried to stop him from killing the boy?" she asked. "This is not the only fight we've had here, but it is the worst. I am very disappointed, especially in you two. Teachers are here to teach, but to help, too."
"Will Billie be getting into trouble?" a girl next to me asked.
"I can't really give someone detention whose looking like this. He can't possibly."
"If yer gonna give me detention, he could at least be suspended," Butch said.
"I'm fine. I'll take detention. I started it," Billie said. Everyone looked at him; the principal looked to the ground.
"You must be hurt, not many students say that."
"It's better than going home." He didn't look up.
"Fine, but we will have to call your parents. Both of yours." She looked at both boys. Billie looked up at her quickly, he looked scared. Something must go on at home, I can tell.
"You both have two weeks of after school detention. You are to be there as soon as the bell rings, after you get your belongings. I don't want any more arguments, and Billie, don't let this happen again, this is the second time since you came here, Butch, I lost count after your twentieth time." Everyone laughed; Butch got red again.
"I shouldn't have to go, I didn't do anything." Billie looked at him, still holding his arm.
"Nothing. I'll take note on that," he said. The coach looked at him, then to Butch.
"Would you like me to call their parents now?"
"Take Butch, Billie needs to go and get cleaned up." She looked at the class. "It's over, go back into your class." Everyone did as they were told. She took Billie down the hall, the coach and Butch short behind.
"You know, I can't believe you would stand up to him like that," Marshall said when I sat down.
"It was my chair, and I don't move for jerks," was all I said in reply. Marshall looked at me and smiled.
"You got real guts girl, real guts. Y'know, the last time Billie Joe stood up for a girl was when it was his girlfriend. Never since, never."
I looked at him, he was still looking at me.
"I don't have anymore guts than the next person; I'm just the only one that will show that I've got them. But, why? Why did he stand up for me? I was a jerk..." I couldn't look at him anymore; he looked mad when I said I was a jerk.
"How? How were you a jerk?"
"I just wouldn't be nice. No matter what he did. He started out as a jerk, and I continued."
"Well, with him, you have to be a jerk until he knows who's boss. If you don't, he'll be a total idiot to you, forever, unless you stand up to him. That was how him and Lilly got together. The first person to ever stand up to him."
"And why did no one else do that before her? They couldn't have been scared."
"Heh, you saw him beat Butch up today, no one else, no one, would have dared do that. They were afraid of him, though he would have never done anything to them anyway, he just was a jerk, that made them think that he would end up doing things to them, so, they never stood up to him. That simple."
"Yeah, good point. Uh, your name is Marshall, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"I have a question. And it is serious. I want you to answer it without getting upset with me, please."
"I can do that. I don't get mad easily, unless your name is Jimmy, then I will."
"Heh, it's not." I took a deep breath and looked at him. "Why were you and Jimmy staring at me in reading and social studies? It made me uncomfortable."
"Oh." He looked to me first and then to his hands. "I can't really tell you why, except that a friend of ours told us about you; we were trying to, well, we wanted to see if you were the same person that he was talking about. And, I am sorry I made you feel that way."
"It's okay, but why can't you tell me why? Like, why can't you tell me who the person was, or what they told you about me?"
"Because they are embarrassed about it. Not about the problem, but they don't want anyone to know."
"Someone likes me, don't they?" I asked. He smiled.
"Yes, but I can't tell you who."
"Why not? I won't tell anyone, or be mad."
"Why do you want to know? Is there any real reason?"
"Not a good reason, but I just want to know. I don't know why, besides the fact that you already told me part of it, so I just want to know the rest."
"What will you give me in return if I tell you?"
"I dunno, what do you want?"
He looked at my lips and smiled. "I don't know."
I smiled, but didn't look at him. When I did look at him, he was still smiling. "I think you do." He looked down. "So, you will tell me if I kiss you?"
"Not until tomorrow."
I raised an eyebrow, confused.
"Tomorrow? Why?"
"Because I want to have more than just a kiss." He got a bit serious now, I could tell he wanted a lot more than just a peck on the lips, a lot more. He wasn't looking at me while I thought this.
"Erm, how long would that be?"
"I dunno, when would you start feeling too uncomfortable?"
"I really don't know." Now that I had got to know a 'little' more about him, I wouldn't have such an unsettled feeling as I would've before. It may be awhile, it may be a quick kiss. "It depends on how fast you expect me to go; if you take it slowly, then possibly for as long as you would like." He smiled at this.
"Then I guess I'll have to take it slowly, for a while."
I looked at him as the teacher came back in.
"That was a bit weird, but we'll just have to continue with the last, ow...we only have twelve minutes left, so just talk," he said. Everyone moved to a spot where their friends were and the class filled with chattering.
"When do you want it?" I asked Marshall.
"Whenever you're ready," he said.
"After school?"
"That'd be fine. But where?"
"Well, I don't want to go home where I would be caught, so what about your house?"
"My house? I guess that'd be fine."
We talked about nothing for the last ten minutes, getting up and gathering our belongings from our lockers, heading to his house. He had an older house, but it was nice: two story. When we walked though the door, we were greeted by a lady in her late thirties, early forties.
"Hey, Mom."
She smiled, looking at me.
"Hey Marshall, who's she?" she asked, still smiling.
"She is a friend from school. Emily, Mom, Mom, Emily."
"Hello, Emily. How are you?" she asked, holding out her hand. I shook it, looking at Marshall.
"Um, I'm fine."
"We're gonna go up to my room."
"Okay, if you need anything dear, just tell me."
I smiled and followed him up the stairs to his room. He opened the door and closed it behind us. His room was clean and large; a lot bigger than mine. He looked at me and smiled again. I knew what he wanted. I walked up to him and pushed my lips against his. He seemed surprised that I had been the one to start it, so was I, but this was my first time actually kissing someone, and I just wanted to get it over with, so I thought. When I kissed him he pulled me in closer, a lot closer than I had wanted, but I just let him do what he wanted, feeling that nothing more would happen. We stayed like this for about ten minutes before making-out. When I had had enough, I pulled away. He smiled at me.
"So, you can't tell me until tomorrow?" I asked with puppy dog eyes.
"Not until tomorrow," he said.
I play glared at him, pretending to pout. "After that, and I still have to wait," I said, crossing my arms. All he did was smile, laughing a little.
"I wasn't supposed to tell you at all, so you should be happy that I'm telling you."
He was right, but I didn't care. He was a good kisser. Um, where did that come from? I looked up and to his walls. There were no posters, surprisingly, but instead, there were pictures of ladies. It looked a little like they were naked, like that was the reason they were there.
"Um, what are all of these?"
"Women," he simply said.
"No, really? I thought they were guys. What I mean is, why are they here? Do you like naked women that much or something? Or, is it just something to look at every once and a while?"
He looked at them as well. "Both really." I looked at him and frowned. "What? Is that a problem?"
"No, it's just that I wouldn't exactly expect all of that from you," I said looking at him. "You look more like a punk, not someone that looks at naked girls. It seems more like you'd have pictures of rock stars and people smoking, like my cousin."
"A lot of people say that. My mom did before, she used to say that she didn't want those posters in my room, she hasn't been up here for about a year because she thinks that is what I have up here. She would be so pissed if she saw this stuff. But I don't care."
"Oh, I see. Is Jimmy like that?"
"Like what? Pics of women all over his walls? No, not at all. He is bi, and tries to hide it, so he has no pictures at all, except locked away on his computer."
"Oh my gosh, are you serious? I would of never expected that," I said with my hand over my mouth.
"Yeah. You should see him with Billie. He won't say whether he is straight or not, and I believe he is, but Jimmy seems to be all over him at times, not realizing it."
"What do you mean 'all over him'?" I looked at him confused.
"He just stares at him, and you can tell what's going on in his head."
"Like what he's thinking?"
"He doesn't think, he doesn't know how. Why do you think he keeps quiet a lot of the time? Because if he didn't, he would come out with something that had nothing to do with the conversation." He looked at me.
"Really? That's so sad."
"No, not really. He is actually really smart, when he wants to be, which is not around school. No one here acts smart; if we had one person here besides a nerd that did, well, it'd be a miracle."
"I am smart."
"You kissed me."
I laughed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He looked over and smiled.
"You would've had to loose your mind to kiss me. Jimmy won't even do that!"
"Why, what's wrong with you?"
"I dunno, nothing, they just say that no one would wanna kiss me."
"Heh, that's weird."
"Would you have kissed me if it hadn't been for the fact that I wouldn't tell you about that unless you did."
"I don't know. I can't rewind the past and try to do that, so I really can't tell you."
He looked at me. "See, that's just it. You probably wouldn't have, you just wanted to know. Now, if Jimmy would kiss Billie, if he'd let him, and he won't kiss me, then it is a proven fact that no one else would either."
I laughed while he said this. I looked over to the alarm clock and noticed that it was around four.
"I should be going. Mum's probably wondering where I am."
"Okay, bye." He opened the door and followed me downstairs.
"Bye, Emily. I hope you can come by again sometime. Have a good day," his mother said.
"You too." I opened the door and walked outside. I wanted to be alone for the walk home, so I made sure that Marshall wasn't behind me. He wasn't, must be he didn't really want to be with me, which wasn't a bad thing at all; it actually made me feel a little better.
I didn't realize how far away from my house I was until I read the street signs. I was beginning to get a little freaked out, but I stayed cool, I didn't want anyone from school to see me freak out; I'd be made fun of until I died. I looked up to one of the signs; it pointed to a road that was twenty minutes from my house. My mom would be mad when I walked through the door that late. And...I've never been down this street alone, so what about the rapers that may be all around me? I was beginning to wish that Marshal were here to walk me home now. I was about to reach for my backpack, but stopped when I remembered that I had decided to leave it at school. Great, now I can't even call my mom to have her pick me up! Why the heck was I so stupid?!
I continued walking. After eight minutes I came up to a long street that turned off onto another. I walked down this street, but stopped dead when I heard yelling.
"You little-" I heard a man yell. He had been cut off by a woman.
"No! Don't hit him!! Stop!" She sounded like she was probably crying at this point.
"I told you to behave! And then you go to your freaking school and get in a fight! Go to the garage, I'll be there in a minute. NOW!" I heard a door slam and then another yell.
"Don't slam the door!" the person opened the door and slammed it again.
"I told you not to slam the door!" The next thing I heard hurt me so much, even though I didn't know who the people were.
"No! Put the knife down!" the woman screamed. "He's just upset!"
"Get off me! None of my kids tell me what to do!"
"They are not your kids! They are Andy's!"
"Andy is dead, and he's in the past!"
"And he doesn't want to know that! To him he is still alive! He only acts this way because you won't give him a chance!" she cried again. "Please!"
"I said, get off of me!" I heard something that sounded like a slap and the lady was silent.
"Get away!" a boy's voice called after the door opened and shut. "Get away from me!" The boy sounded familiar. Who was it? I heard the door open again and slam shut. There was a sound like someone was rushing.
"Unlock this door!"
"Why the heck would I do that?!"
"If you don't get this door unlocked by the count of three, I will hurt you so bad!"
"What are you going to do? Kill me?! I'll be better off dead!"
The next noise was horrible. It sounded of busting wood. The front door flew open, and the boy came out. He ran towards me, apparently not realizing it. I looked at him a bit closer. Oh my gosh, it was Billie Joe! He had blood all over. He looked at me, but not noticing who I was. I watched as the man came out through the door.
"Billie!"
He looked over to me, squinting to see who I was. The sun was in his eyes so he was having a hard time.
"Who are you?" he yelled, out of breath.
"It's me, Emily."
He stopped dead, looking at me.
"What? What are you doing here?"
"I went to Marshal's house."
"What?"
"Billie! You have to get out of here! I'll explain later!"
He didn't seem like he wanted to go with me, but knew he had no other choice. I looked at him, and turned to run. He followed me. When I looked behind me, I noticed he was looking back. The man was running after us, quite fast.
"Can you run any faster?" I asked, as the man was catching up.
"You ever been beat and had to run for your life? Didn't think so!" he said, panting. I turned on the corner and went straight. We both ran for our lives, going and going. After twelve minutes, we turned onto a street that I had never in life been to. Billie looked to the signs.
"What?" he asked when noticing the confused look on my face.
"Is...there any....place...to rest?" I asked, panting and out of breath still, but even more.
"Your turn to follow me." He stopped and looked around. I wondered why the heck he was just standing there. "Come on. Can you cli...climb?" he asked. He didn't seem to be doing as bad as me.
"Yes, but I don't know how well I'll be right now."
"Oh well, we have to try!" He went to the right and ran to a large tree. It reached up really far, and was equally as wide.
"We...we have to climb...this?"
He shook his head. "Yes. He can't climb, and up there you could explain why you were there, at Marshal's house."
"Okay. But, can you help me up at all?"
"Yes, you won't need to climb up this part though. Around the other side is a rope ladder. I'll pull it up after we get there." He went around to the other side, me following close behind. When on the other side, he jumped up and pulled a ladder down. It was about five feet above ground; I was only about five two, not good. Before he'd pulled it down, it was almost a foot above my head.
"Um, Billie. My height and that don't make a good combo."
"Yes, I noticed." He held tight to the ladder and put all of his weight on it, bringing it down about five inches. "Any better?"
"Yes, I hope." I grabbed tight one the ladder, trying to hoist myself up. I felt his arm go around one of my legs. "Now put your feet on my shoulders; pull yourself up." I did as he said and soon found myself up on the ladder. I climbed as fast as I could so that he could get on. My weight brought it down an extra four inches, so he was in good luck there. But then I realized he'd said something about being beaten, that would slow him down, and bring his strength down a little. But I was proven wrong. I felt the rope go down a little more, and weight being added to it. Soon I was near the top of the ladder. When I reached the top, I noticed a large deck, the leaves were hiding this part out of view. After I got fully over the edge, I moved aside to let Billie up. He got up and began pulling the ladder up.
"Billie, who made this?"
"My dad."
"That guy made this?"
"NO!" he yelled.
"Sorry!"
"No, he didn't," he said, his head hanging. "My dad died when I was ten."
"Then, who is that?"
"My step-dad. My drunk step-dad."
"Why is this place hidden out of view? And how did the trees get carved back like this?" I said, noticing that he didn't want to talk about the dad subject anymore. When I looked up, the trees were in a dome shape; it looked awesome.
"My dad carved it like this so that we could come up here with privacy, not to have to worry about everyone watching us. Here, come," he said after the last bit of ladder was over the edge. He walked me over to the middle of the tree. The deck went all around the tree. When we got to the other side, I noticed another rope ladder.
"Wow," I said, looking up. There was more added to the top. Though this was a bit different. It was like a whole house up there, about a hundred feet above us.
"Did he build this too?"
"No, that has been there forever. Never dared to go in it though, supposed to have weird things happening up there."
"How did the ladder get there?"
"Been there forever too, that's another reason I've never been up there, too afraid the ladder will break."
"Haven't the other people ever tried to get up it?"
"What other people? You're the only other person that knows about it."
"Why'd you bring me?"
"Because this is the only safe place here. And it helps me to calm down knowing that my dad's the one to make it."
"Have you ever wanted to get up there?"
"Heh, oh yes."
"Then...why don't you?"
"I just told you."
"Well, I could try to get up there, see how it is."
"And if you fall?"
"Catch me, that's all I can say."
"What are you gonna do if you get up there?"
"Give me a rope, and I can tie it up there, so you can get up. Because truthfully, I don't plan on exploring it alone."
"Whatever, you can try."
I smiled at him and held out my hand.
"What?"
"Rope?"
"Oh." He walked back around the tree and went to a corner of the deck. He came back with another rope ladder.
"Here ya go." He handed it to me. "Be careful," he said. I couldn't believe he was telling me to be careful.
I started climbing up the tree slowly so that I didn't fall. After what seemed like hours, I was at the top of the ladder, pulling myself up on a really small doorstep. I unhooked the old ladder and replaced it with the new one. I let the bottom swing down to Billie.
"Hurry! I don't wanna be up here alone!"
"Huh?" he yelled.
"Hurry!"
"What?" He couldn't hear me, and I didn't know why. I hear him perfectly well. I heard a low humming, it sounded like a bee of some sort, but it was getting louder. My heart began to race as I thought about what it could be, but laughed as I knew all it could have been was a small bee, that was pretty much harmless. I looked down at him as he started to climb.
"Billie, hurry!" I yelled again. He didn't respond, but kept climbing. When he was almost to the middle I called down to him.
"What d'you think is up here?" I asked. He reached the middle. "I mean in the house."
"What about the house?" he called up.
"Huh?"
"All I heard was 'I mean in the house', what about it?"
"All you heard was that?"
"Yeah, why?"
"That is strange."
"Why?"
"Because, while you were below the middle of the tree you couldn't hear anything, but once you reached the middle, you could."
"Yeah, that is weird." he said as he reached where I was. "But...what were you saying?"
"What do you think is in the house?"
"Don't know, won't know, until we're inside it." He turned around and looked at what I thought had been a door.
"Wasn't there just...wasn't a door just there?"
"Yeah, I...think so," he said as the humming sound started again. "I told you this place was said to have weird things happening."
I smiled, or tried to, when he said this.
"What...what is that sound?"
"I dunno, did it just start?"
"No, it did it when you were down there, when I first got up here."
"Sounds like a killer bee."
"No, really? I thought it was a bird."
"You sound like Marshal. Oh, we were supposed to talk about that. Why were you there?"
"Um..."
"'Um'? What about 'um'?" I looked at him.
"Uh...well. He said something about someone liking me, and the only way he'd tell me was if I kissed him."
"Heh, he ain't gonna tell you just because you kissed him."
"What?!"
"You actually believed him?"
"Yes."
"He did the same thing to Jimmy, our friend. Told him he'd do something, wouldn't even tell me, and Jimmy asked what he had to do, and Marshal said to kiss one of the friends."
"And...why did he want him to do that?"
"Because he wouldn't tell Jimmy anyways, if at all, unless he kissed him."
"Why?"
"Because he is bisexual. Why else?"
"He is?"
"Yes."
"He said that Jimmy was."
"Oh fuck no!" he laughed.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes! Jimmy hated the idea of kissing another guy, let alone making out with him! He was so mad when he found out that he wasn't gonna tell him anything!"
I just looked at him and sighed.
"So otherwise he was serious when he said I was stupid, or whatever, for kissing him?"
"Hate to break it to ya, but, yes."
"That is...that is weird."
He nodded. "He is weird."
I looked at him. "Why did he say that Jimmy was bisexual?"
"Because he doesn't want others to know that he likes guys, I guess. He thought that he could make Jimmy look bad, but instead this happened."
"But...he said that Jimmy liked you?"
"Uh, he said that?"
"Yeah. Would that mean that he liked you, and not Jimmy?"
"I dunno, and...I really don't feel like finding out. Others can like me, but I really don't want Marshal to." I laughed. As I began to talk, I heard the noise of the bee again. I looked over to him; he was looking around. He didn't act like he was scared, just wondering what it was.
"Where is it coming from?" I asked
"Don't know, besides from up here." He stood up and went to the edge of the small porch we were on. Down below, the tree house ground was a blur. It hadn't been that way before. He looked around; to me his gaze met last.
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